Rain

1924

Arthur Dove

Associated Names
Arthur Dove

Artist, American, 1880 - 1946

At least two dozen straw-brown twigs are affixed to a metal surface in a wood frame in this rectangular, vertically oriented object. Most of the twigs are fastened so they seem to come down from the top rail of the wooden frame. The background is mostly slate blue, but a triangular area along the top is marine blue and outlined in darker blue. The tip points down. A V-shaped, dark blue spot is near the bottom right corner of the composition.
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On View

East Building Ground Level, Gallery 106-A

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    twigs and rubber cement on metal and glass

  • Credit Line

    Avalon Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 49.5 x 39.7 cm (19 1/2 x 15 5/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1997.1.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 1925 by Georgia O'Keeffe [1887-1986], Abiquiú, New Mexico;[1] her estate; sold 21 January 1997 through (Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri) to NGA.
[1] One annotated copy of the catalogue for the 1925 exhibition that Alfred Stieglitz mounted at Anderson Galleries in New York, in which Rain was first displayed, indicates a sale price for the sculpture; another annotated catalogue lists the work as "sold" (both catalogues are in the archives of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, Abiquiu, New Mexico; copies in NGA curatorial files). Other sources for the 1925 date are: a letter of 25 October 1965 from O'Keeffe to Dorothy Rylander Johnson, saying "I bought Rain when it was first shown." (quoted in Dorothy Rylander Johnson, "Arthur Dove: the Years of Collage," M.A. Thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, 1967: 35-36, note 57); Hunter Drohojowska-Philip, Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe, New York and London, 2004: 254; Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, and London, 2000: 315. However, in a letter of 7 December 1996, John Van Doren (the dealer who handled the sale of Rain to NGA) says "this is a work which Dove gave to Georgia O'Keeffe and which remained in her collection until the end of her life" (in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1925

  • Alfred Stieglitz Presents Seven Americans, The Anderson Galleries, New York, 1925, no. 17.

1926

  • [Dove exhibition], Intimate Gallery, New York, 1926.

1933

  • [private group exhibition], An American Place, New York, 1933.

1934

  • [Dove exhibition], An American Place, New York, 1934.

1939

  • Arthur G. Dove: Exhibition of Oils and Temperas, An American Place, New York, 1939, no. 20 (dated 1925).

1947

  • Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1947.

1974

  • Arthur Dove, San Francisco Museum of Art and five other venues, 1974-1976, unnumbered catalogue, repro. (probably shown only in San Francisco).

1997

  • Arthur Dove: A Retrospective Exhibition, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997-1998, unnumbered catalogue, pl. 27.

2001

  • Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001, no. 108, repro.

2004

  • Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle: 1905-1930, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2004-2005, no. 123, repro.

2005

  • Dada, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2005-2006, not in cat. (shown only in Paris).

  • Dada, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2005 - 2006, unnumbered catalogue.

2009

  • Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2009, pl. 34.

Bibliography

1944

  • Mullett, Suzanne M. "Arthur G. Dove (1880-1946): A Study in Contemporary Art." M.A. thesis, American University, Washington, D.C., 1944: 52.

1947

  • Phillips, Duncan. "Arthur G. Dove, 1880-1946." Magazine of Art 40, no. 5 (May 1947): 195.

1950

  • Pollitzer, Anita. "'That's Georgia'." Saturday Review of Literature (4 November 1950): 43.

1967

  • Arthur Dove: The Years of Collage. Exh. cat. University of Maryland Art Gallery: 17, pl. 8, no. 4.

  • Johnson, Dorothy Rylander. Arthur Dove: The Years of Collage. M.A. thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, 1967: 35-36, repro 31.

1984

  • Morgan, Ann Lee. Arthur Dove: Life and Work, With a Catalogue Raisonné, Newark, London, and Toronto, 1984: 132-133, no. 24.6, repro.

1988

  • Morgan, Ann Lee, ed. Dear Stieglitz, Dear Dove. Newark, London, and Toronto, 1988: 114.

2004

  • Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter. Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. New York and London: 204, 254.

Wikidata ID

Q63861639

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